California lacks a lot of the rules and restrictions the East has. Every house is a different style, different material, different color. There's a lot of craziness out there.
During the time I was on The Hardy Boys, I was also watching other people's careers. I thought the next step was to be a movie star. I kept saying no to projects, and offers stopped coming in. I was no longer hot.
Everyone wanted me to play the same kind of Hardy Boy character. I was being offered pretty boy, All-American boy-next-door roles, and I was sick of playing them.
Good work is good work wherever it's done, in a play, a motion picture or television, and that includes commercials.
I almost rented a house by an architect named Schindler, but I couldn't afford it. It was a jewel.
I could be happy doing something like architecture. It would involve another couple of years of graduate school, but that's what I studied in college. That's what I always wanted to do.
I did a comparison of a school of architects known as the New York Five. I compared their articulation of wall surfaces, which I enjoyed very much.
I do interviews because it's a chance to be myself. I sometimes wonder what I could have to say that would be of any interest. I don't have any great wisdom.
I don't want to spready myself too thin. I want to come out of the show with people thinking of me as an actor.
I gave up on Hollywood and got a different kind of education by travelling throughout Europe and South America and racing cars.
I got more exposure in the first two episodes of The Hardy Boys than I did in 100 commercials and three features.
I like people who are enthused about things they do, like travel, sports, work. I like being with people who have things they're excited about.
I looked along the San Juan Islands and the coast of California, but I couldn't find the palette of green, granite, and dark blue that you can only find in Maine.
I made a classic mistake. I held out for something better.
I remember the day I found out my draft status. I was really floored and kind of staggered around in a daze. It just hadn't occurred to me that I could end up in Vietnam.
I still think of myself really as a New Yorker.
I think the reaction to a World War II situation would be the same today as it was in 1942. Initially, people would question, but once patriotism got stirred up, the whole thing would gather momentum and we'd all pull together.
I used to a lot. I used to go dancing.
I wanted my children to have the same exposure to the water I had. My strongest memories of Northeast Harbor are going in a small Whaler with my dad, looking for osprey.
I was the last one to screen test for The Hardy Boys. I'd like to play that's not as clean-cut as Frank Hardy. I play him as straight as possible.
I'm going to go away on vacation, I'm going to try to get away from the phone, away from scripts. I think it's important to sit back and think about what you want.
I'm more interested in where I'll be in five or 10 years than where I am now.
If I go to a restaurant and people ask for an autograph, I'm very flattered, but I realize it's the nature of television.
If I have a Sunday free, I'll go up the coast and spend some time on the beach. I scuba dive and swim and sail. A lot of the things I like are around the water.
If it seems like you're doing work when you're acting, then you're doing something wrong.
In 1942, everyone was ready to go and fight for the good guys. It was so simple.
In this business, you just never know from day to day. It's one reason I held off getting too involved in entertainment. I like being able to plan, I like to know what I'm going to be doing.
Intellectuals would be much more accepted now than in the '40s.
It really wasn't until I finished college that I started to think of acting as a career. It was always secondary.
My interest in architecture has always been sculptural. Most of my photography is of architecture.
My kids feel cozy in every corner of this house, which really shocks me, because I might have thought it daunting.
My work and our life is really in Los Angeles now that my kids are further along in school and their routines are set.
Suddenly you're surrounded by strangers who want something from you. The thing is, they don't know what they want, and you don't know what they want, unless it's an autograph, and you just sort of stand there grinning at one another.
The first two pictures I did, I played a young student in prep school. When I did Lifeguard, everyone was saying, You're so Southern California. It was a surprise to me.
The Hardy Boys burned me out. I was recharging my batteries. It was time to return to work, but it was tough because my visibility was low.
What I do is not some magical, mystical thing. I simply get up in the morning, get to work on time, say my lines, and do the best I can.
When people ask me where I studied and I tell them my classrooms were the soundstages of television, I watch their reactions.
You do show after show after show and get them done and on the air. Television devours material. We work a minimum of 12, 14 hours, and often 15, 18 hours a day.
You get in before sunrise and you get out after sunset and you go home, eat and collapse. While you're aware of the ratings, you aren't prepared for the response of the fans.
Young people are forced to mature sooner now than in the '40s. I was doing things at age 14 that guys in the movie were just beginning to do at 16 and 17.
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